Terry Gross

Writer Valerie Miner. Her work has been praised for it's uncommon honesty and intensity. Miner focuses on a group of people she finds overlooked in American literature: the working class. Her books include "All Good Women," "Blood Sisters," and "Winter's Edge." Her new book, "Trespassing," is a collection of stories which span the globe and examine the quiet shifts in relationships or in an individual's sense of self.

Adventure writer Tim Cahill. Cahill writes in a self-deprecating way about his death-defying experiences around the world. His accounts of adventures in caves, mountains, deserts, and rapids appear in his collections, "A Wolverine is Eating My Leg,"and "Jaguars Ripped My Flesh." He's also a columnist for "Outside Magazine." (re-broadcast of interview first aired April 5, 1989.)

Poet Galway Kinnell, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for his collection, "Selected Poems." His poem, "When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone" is featured this month in "The Atlantic" Magazine. (rebroadcast from April 4, 1989)

Film director Arthur Penn. Penn's latest film is "Penn and Teller Get Killed." His previous movies include "Bonnie and Clyde," "Little Big Man," "The Miracle Worker," "Alice's Restaurant," and "The Missouri Breaks."

John Gerassi (jer-assy), former journalist, currently a professor of political science at Queens College of the City University of New York. He's written an unusual biography of Jean-Paul Sartre. Gerassi is Sartre's official biographer and was a personal friend, yet he is neither totally objective or uncritical. The book includes Gerassi's own observations as well as material culled from over 100 hours of interviews with Sartre and complete access to Sartre's papers.

Jazz pianist Kenny Barron pays tribute to jazz great Thelonious Monk.

Indian film director Mira Nair. Her first feature film, "Salaam Bombay!" is the story of Bombay's child beggars. It was filmed in the chaos of Bombay's red-light district with street children who were trained in a seven-week crash course. The film won the Golden Camera prize for best feature film at the Cannes Film Festival and the top honors at the Montreal Film Festival. (Rebroadcast. Original date March 7, 1989).

Playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein (pronounced fire-steen). He's one of Broadway's leading playwrights. His hit play "Torch Song Trilogy," was adapted into a film, starring Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft. It's now out on home video cassette. Fierstein also wrote the plays "La Cage Aux Folles," and "Safe Sex." (Rebroadcast. Original date December 27, 1988).

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the theatrical re-release of "Tom Jones." The 1963 film adaptation of Henry Fielding's novel of a bawdy 18th century playboy won Oscars for best picture, director, screenplay, and score. It stars Albert Finney and Susannah York.

Biographer Michael Holroyd. His 1988 book "The Search for Love," on the early life of George Bernard Shaw, was called one of the "three great literary biographies of the century." Holroyd continues Shaw's biography in the second volume titled "The Pursuit of Power." In it, Holroyd writes about Shaw's hard-won battle for success in the London theatre. And he details Shaw's political battles for Fabian socialism and Irish Home Rule. Holroyd established his reputation as a biographer with a two volume book on the life of Lytton Strachey.